When I bake bread in the winter, and the house temperature is cooler, I have a heating pad that I wrap around the bowl to keep the dough warm. Not too warm, I turn it only to the lowest setting, but even that small amount of heat makes the sourdough happy. The heating pad was designed for human backs, but works quite well wrapped around a bowl.
Laun•dry gob•lin | ‘lôndrē ‘gäblən | noun
: mischievous creature that manifests on piles or stacks of newly cleaned articles of clothing, attempts to dislodge result in relocation to another laundered surface, relative density of lead, has sharp bits
My favorite cracker recipe. I divide the dough into three sections and roll each section as thin as I can on parchment paper (until it fills most of the cookie sheet sized parchment. I don’t prick them because I rather like it if they puff up. I also bake at full temperature for twenty minutes (or until the edges are just starting to get golden), then turn the oven off, prop open the door and let the crackers get crisp. They don’t last long, everyone in the house likes them.
Mix the ingredients in a bowl, cover, and put in the fridge overnight (or two nights if you forget, they still come out OK). Turn out the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead it gently a few times. Divide the dough into three sections and roll each section out on a baking sheet sized piece of floured parchment paper. Spray the surface of the dough with olive oil, score the dough with a pizza cutter at approximately one inch intervals, then sprinkle lightly with coarse salt. Transfer the parchment paper to baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes, rotate the sheets, bake for about 10 more minutes until the edges are just starting to brown. Turn off the oven, prop open the door, and let the crackers cool in the oven. Store in an airtight container. (But who are we kidding? They probably won’t last the day when the fam finds out what you made.)
Today I present to you Mr Tom licking his chops.
I am in the middle of so many projects, with no end in sight for most of them. I may have to start posting about progress rather than completion. And of course this time of year is crazy busy for all aspects of life, so a good dose of cat posts probably won’t be amiss.
I needed a new fiber page for my spinning book, so I made five. Honestly, it is easier to make multiples for most things, since the tools are out and the groove is worn. I chose five because that is how many end papers I had when I cut the fancy paper to size. Random, but effective. I chose the colors to go with the end paper as well.
Getting the pages in the book has proven a bit more difficult than prepping the pages. I need longer metal posts, and something to space out the pages in the spine, to match the thickness of the page. Hm. That means I need to venture into a craft store. In December. With the other thousand people that need to do the same. Hm.
Critters and Craft 